Tuesday, January 5, 2016

5th Engineer Special Brigade headed to Omaha Beach

I found this color photo of members of the 5th Engineer Special Brigade in Weymouth, England. They're loading landing craft to head over to Omaha Beach, June 1944. You can lisence this image as a stock photo from Galerie Bilderwelt. (And you can browse their collection to see more photos of Operation Overlord)

The 5th ESB along with the 6th ESB were responsible for all logistics in Omaha Beach during the Normandy invasion and the months after. The Normandy beaches were the main place to land troops and supplies while the Allies waited for the sea ports of Cherbourg and Antwerp to be opened (the Fall of 1944).

In WWII the US Army assigned thousands of soldiers to guard seaports and move crucial materials on and off of supply ships. Working under enemy fire from Normandy to Antwerp, my grandfather's 519th Port Battalion helped supply the Allied victory. The book Longshore Soldiers tells that story. This blog includes additional photos and info on his unit and other Army port companies serving in Europe.